


Metal Gleamed at Twilight

by catchandelier



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Action/Adventure, Does Nanako even have Friends?, Except she also has fronds, Gen, Smol Human Adventures Alone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-25 15:38:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6201004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catchandelier/pseuds/catchandelier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Usually when you meet your Otherself, you have a fight.<br/>Dojima Nanako has more important things to do than a round of Self-Reflection;<br/>even her Shadow says something is Not Right.<br/>Through worlds strange and deadly, facing foes numerous and vile,<br/>Nanako will discover herself, new friends, and above all-<br/>a real reason to smile.</p>
<p>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p>A story about friendship, adventure, small children having solid emotions, and the endless crusades of dark forces against the light of creation. Starring: Dojima Nanako as Herself, Herself, and Herself; Janet of the Velvet Room as A Frightened Child Pretending to Be More; Sasuke the Cat as A Boy Thoroughly Confused by the fact he has Thumbs and Sapience; Alice the Candy Maker as A Girl with Conflicting Loyalties and Dire Consequences Pending. Guest Starring: The Mother of Spiders as Herself. With Guest Appearances of: The Daughters of the Spider Mother as Herselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 0: Fool

* * *

 

 

Nanako’s favorite thing to eat is pureed strawberries mixed with cold vanilla custard. She hasn’t had any since her mommy- but it’s her very favorite! Her mommy strained the fruit, and made the custard with eggs and cream and sugar and vanilla that smells so good but tastes just terrible and it would always be left overnight to cool and sometimes Nanako got to eat it for breakfast.

Last sports day, Mommy made her some and she used sweet melon and sprinkled on anzu when it was ready and Nanako liked that too but her favorite is strawberries and custard.

Daddy doesn’t know how to make it at all, and Nanako is too young to use the blender.

 

Souji-nii makes it for her, but he doesn’t know how to make custard so he just uses cream. It’s good, but it isn’t the same at all, and Nanako likes it, really she does- but. It’s not what she wants. But- it’s good, really!

Nanako wants to be like her Souji-nii someday. Nanako watches a lot of TV. Nanako watches things that are a little too mature for her six-year-old self.

Nanako is pretty sure her Souji-nii used to be a delinquent. All the shows with delinquents in them she’s really too young to watch but they’re her absolute favorite and Nanako sometimes wants to take a pipe and break the walls and the windows and tear the whole house apart but-

It wouldn’t be. Fair.

 

It wouldn’t be fair at all to say that Souji-nii’s fool isn’t as good as mommy’s _even though it isn’t_ and it isn’t fair to make daddy sad by breaking the house _even though he’s making me sad_ and it’s not fair it’s not fair it’s not fair at all.


	2. 1: Magic

* * *

 

 

The particulars of it blur in the darkness behind her eyes- a van, the sensation of movement and fear acrid-thick coiled in her throat and choking- ripples of light through glass like water-plunk-stone.

Static.

The sound of breaking glass and the smell of gasoline.

 

_ Someone who looked just like her dragging her away from her kidnapper and running running running and Souji-niisan with a sword and a god at his back and then it hurt it hurt it hurt and she fell. Down. _

 

When Nanako opened her eyes, she saw- cobwebs. Dusty, old cobwebs crawling over absolutely everything. She was lying flat on her back in a musty muggy sunlit patch, and could barely see through- a hole where she fell from, maybe- something. Glimmering faintly above her in a smudgy grey sky, a tiny star-blue dot. 

She sat up and immediately regretted it. Pressed her face into her hands, gritted her teeth. Breathe. Just. Just have to breathe through it, is all. Looking around, Nanako can see more of this smudgy grey dust world, all broken toys and cobwebs turned white and dead and horrible and not sticky at all. She feels- odd. Nanako remembers-  _ a face that was hers and wasn’t hers at all; herself but not herself, her eyes were wrong she’d never glared with such hate she’d never snarled and screamed and sobbed in her eyes but nowhere else she’d never- _ and something is. Missing. She feels all greyed out and smaller than she is, should be- is. Like she’s missing something important.

It’s not a bad grey, this place. That dull off-white color that the screen behind a writing document goes on the computer- not so dark as to be called a proper grey, but not blinding either. Forgettable. Forgotten. She’s forgotten something important. Like she’s fading away, like she’s vanishing, like she’s going to sit here forever and die and be all covered up in cobwebs too. There should be another thought after that, a thought she would try with all her heart to ignore but it would still be there ugly and awful and strange and wrong and- it’s not. There.

There should be more to her than there is. Nanako hasn’t noticed yet. She hasn’t noticed what’s missing. It’s very important.

 

Nanako stands up. Sways. Steadies. Brushes herself off, red skirt flap-flapping. Her shoes are dusty-pink and she has no shadow and grey ash-webby smudges are ground into her sweater and it’s probably in her hair and she has no shadow at all. She must look very strange without any kind of shading. Like a cartoon character. That thought should worry her more than it does. Nanako is worried that she isn’t worried. Is that strange? Well, obviously it doesn’t matter if it’s strange or not, she’s still feeling what she’s feeling and no matter why. Nanako takes a moment to consider if she can actually do anything about her worry- anything constructive. Slow as she’s feeling, she still comes to the conclusion that she just doesn’t know enough about shadows to figure out why hers isn’t stuck to her feet as normal. Perhaps it went exploring without her?

No matter.  _ A girl weeping and screaming and all red mouth wide and tiny fists balled up and- warm hand in hers run run run runrunrunrunrunrUNRUNRUN- _

 

Nanako begins to look around in the piles of cobwebbed… there’s more than toys here. Some of them are very, very broken, but there are some that aren’t. Three water guns that are broken in just enough different ways to make one whole gun that’s only a little ugly but works just fine. There is no water in it, but she still shoots an empty bottle off of the crumbling back of a rocking horse.

A three ring binder with half a pack of graph paper and a pencil case full of colored pencils and a regular pencil and an eraser and two pens and tiny little green paper clips in a snack bag and the rings have to be pulled open because the spine tabs don’t work and there’s a loop of metal on the top. Every time Nanako checks it, more of a strange map is filled in, walls drawn in black pencil line and her swaying steps marked with squares of faded grey. 

A blank journal that got chewed on with blunt teeth and smeared with black ink over gold leaf suns and spirals and it’s pages are ripped on the edge and are soft under her fingers like cloth and it smells like fireworks and smoke and something bitter and it has a hinge that clicks the whole thing closed and a loop where a pen could go behind the hinge. Nanako puts a pen into the loop and doesn’t wonder why. 

Four destroyed planners with printing in red or green or yellow or blue and two halves of a whole planner and one has little black and purple skulls and the other is covered in pink hearts and plus signs. Nanako stacks them purple-black then red then blue then yellow then green then pink and it turns into a strange tome with dividing tabs and another loop for a pen. Nanako doesn’t have any more pens now after putting her last one into the tome’s pen-loop. Nanako isn’t sure why she calls it a tome. 

A stuffed bunny on a keychain with it’s body all missing and a compass on a single link of chain. Nanako takes the bunny off and puts the compass on, then on the map-book. It dangles happily, red arrow spinning spinning  _ red mouth screaming at her _ and that’s three books and an empty water gun that still shoots fine.

A black school bag with an angry set of claw marks over the thick leather flap. The straps are fine though, and the books fit into it okay and it only takes a little bit of fiddling with the buckles to make it fit her shoulders and it’s not heavy at all. A spool of butcher’s twine with glitter all sprinkled over it and a pair of scissors with a melt in one of the loops. Nanako takes a moment, sitting on a beanbag chair that’s had it’s guts all scattered out to braid together a strap for the water gun. She cuts away a big part of the cloth from the chair and gathers as many beans as she can, ties the mouth shut with string.  _ Shut your mouth _ doesn’t think to wonder why. Just does it.

Nanako’s been just doing a lot of things. There’s something she’s forgotten and it’s telling her to do things but she can’t remember it speaking and then she’s doing it because she trusts it because it’s-

 

A string ring of different kinds of tape gets tied to the bag. So do some dusty metal water bottles. Nanako tapes together the pieces of a pair of ugly black glasses with butterflies on the frames and they were broken at the nose but she had cloth tape that stuck perfectly well and probably would hurt less on the nose  _ would hurt too much to just say it all would just make it true make it true make it true- _ A box full of toy coins but some are… more. There’s a pouch on the bottom of the box missing it’s drawstring. Nanako fixes it with more string and a pair of paperclips. Puts all the more-coins in the bag, cups sticks swords stars and more go in than the bag can fit but it never gets full. Coin-bag goes into the pack. Glasses go into the pack. There’s a blue butterfly hairclip that’s crusted with something brown that smells like skinned knees feel. Nanako picks the crusting off and puts it into the pack.

 

Nanako is okay with a water gun- she’s a good shot- but she’s seen her oni-chan’s sword and she wants to be just like him one day and she wants a sword too. But. Swords are kinda scary. So maybe a shield instead? There’s a street-sign with a big white stripe across its middle that’s been bashed into a curvy shape and it’s got a staff all strapped to the back and it looks like a shield sort of. There’s a length of heavy pipe too, and Nanako is strong enough to grab one end of it and drag it along after her after she tucks the shield onto her back. Somehow.

It’s all kinda heavy.

Just... Everything.


	3. 2: Priestess

* * *

 

 

Nanako- if she knew she did- really admires the kind of person who can keep a straight face through the slings and arrows of outrageous fate. (It’s the wheel of fortune that grinds Justice’s sword the sharpest.) Her oniichan acts just the way Nanako wants to be- he’s always so calm and he always has time to listen to her and he always listens- _never say anything important how do you expect anyone to know how you feel if you never say why don’t you ever say what you want or how you feel-_ and Nanako knows her oniichan uses a sword. Nanako is going to be just like her oniichan who wasn’t scared at all when he- fought for her.

Nanako isn’t scared at all as she walks through a labyrinth of grey cobwebbed hills and pat-pat-pat of her feet in dust so thick it’s caked all the way to the tops of her shoes. Nanako doesn’t know how long she’s been walking but she’s not hungry or thirsty or even particularly tired. Her map has become a strange tangle of grey rooms outlined in black.

The pipe isn’t a sword but she can probably swing it or maybe find something lighter or maybe-

 

Something makes Nanako stop and hold very still. There was a- scuttling sound. Like something with too many sharp feet scuttle tapping over the dusty ground tap-tap-tapping through the dust and- In the grey world, in grey light where bright edged things are fuzzy and soft and the air is only slowly pushed by Nanako’s passage, in a world stagnant and still but for Nanako alone-

Metal gleams.

The smell of fireworks is stronger, and a heavy bitter smell- like regret but sharper like pride but heavier- runs ahead of a loud ringing scrape. Metal on metal and stone scrape and it rings in her teeth and the faint sensation of springs.

 

Nanako can’t move her feet.

 

It’s so quiet. Nanako can hear her breath wheeze through her throat, the one-two drum-beat of her heart pressing small in the cage of her chest- a small wild animal making itself tiny so as not to get eaten by something bigger with- The leg of a spider but sharp as a good kitchen knife which Nanako isn’t allowed to use and it’s slowly unfolding from around the corner of the hallway. It stabs into the dust and that- sound- rings through Nanako and she can’t move. It’s a gleaming silver black near the joint and the whole of the tip is covered in crumbling brown stains. There’s a smell of rotten meat in the air, and something is clicking. It’s her. She’s shivering.

It’s not cold.

There’s a brown handprint on the side of the blade-leg, smudged and awful against the silver-bright.  

 

Nanako carefully puts down the pipe. She turns slowly, never looking away from the leg-blade with it’s awful brown smudge.

Nanako runs away as fast as she can.

It follows her.

 

There’s a shivering sound of metal and a clang- Nanako doesn’t stop to look she keeps running and then she trips on a desk leg. She falls and slides and her breath is knocked out of her and there’s dust in her nose and her mouth and her eyes and it’s getting closer and she can’t reach her gun and she can’t see and she can’t get up and she can’t stop coughing and all she can think to do is close her eyes and curl up and between her coughs is a whimper of fear- she’s crying the dust out and crying and she opens her eyes to see a leg from the- thing- stab down right next to her. There are many brown handprints on the side of the blade. Some are big. Some are smaller than her own hands. There are more small ones than big ones.

Nanako closes her eyes tight because she doesn’t want to see anymore and she can hear the creaking-spring sound that means a leg is going up and she screams and-

 

A crash of metal on metal and a shout of “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER!” and the metal rings like bells and-

Nanako opens her eyes. She didn’t want to see how she would die. But all she could see was- herself. Nanako saw herself in her sports-day clothes; hair in a ponytail through a red ball cap and a white shirt and black shorts and white knee high socks and running shoes and her hair ribbons are tied to the side-bottom of her shirt. Nanako watches herself wield the pipe like it’s weightless and watches herself fight the knife spider and snarl and yell her defiance with each ringing strike.

Nanako has struggled to her feet, gun and pack forgotten on the floor and shield in hand. Nanako could see herself starting to tire, could see shakes in her arms getting stronger with each swing, could see a soft fabric underbelly underneath the knife-spider’s deadly legs when it reared back and came down like a guillotine. It reared again and Nanako charged forward behind her shield and shoved it as hard as she could. A stuttering scrape followed by a metal crash.

Nanako flinched and stumbled behind her shield as the frantic knife-spider flailed and tossed, trying to right itself. Nanako saw herself jump and ducked, felt herself land on her shield and shoved forwards again and she _flew_ and Nanako saw herself swing the pipe in an arc and plunge it deep into the soft white belly of the knife spider and she saw a fantastic spray of bitter oil spew and mist everywhere and she saw herself slide down the belly like a pirate did in an OVA for- and then Nanako sees herself standing on the ground and the spider screams once, high and terrible and then it stills and is dead.

It’s dead and Nanako is running again. She wraps her arms around herself, squeezes and doesn’t let go. When Nanako feels herself being tentatively hugged back, she realizes she’s sobbing the ugly way where her face gets all hot and her forehead hurts and tears come out of her nose. The Other sits Nanako down away from the corpse and makes soothing murmurs and rubs a warm hand over Nanako’s back and holds her while she cries it out. She’s grabbed Nanako’s shield and the gun and the pack and they’re sitting on a chunk of guard rail.

 

Nanako feels- different. Not exactly better. Definitely not the same. Nanako feels- floaty, like when she’s falling asleep but can’t stop thinking. She looks up from the Other’s shoulder which is all covered in snot and tears and her Other looks just like her but not because her Other has black where white should be in her eyes and yellow where brown should be and a terrible scowl that Nanako can tell doesn’t mean anything at all because she’s still being held warm and close and tight and safe and-

 

“I’m so glad you’re here.” said Nanako.

“Hahaha. That’s not usually what things like me hear- but… I guess I am too.” said Other Nanako.

“You saved me.” said Nanako.

“I guess… but really, I was just saving myself. I am you, and you are me.” said Other Nanako.

“I don’t think you really believe that- or maybe you did, but you don’t anymore. I don’t really think you’re me because I don’t think I’m really me right now. I- I mean, it’s not that you’re _not_ me, but- I don’t feel. Like I’m all here.” said Nanako.

“I- you can’t _not_ be you, who else could you be? I’m you- but then...” said Other Nanako.

“If I’m you, and you’re me, why did you say ‘her’ when you saved me from the spider? ‘Don’t you touch her!’ That’s what you said.” said Nanako.

“But- but I _am_ you. Or- at least, I know I’m part of you. But it feels- different. Not- not bad. But- I should be trying to kill you but I don’t want to and that’s not-” said Other Nanako.

“If we’re the same person, wouldn’t that just be a form of suicide?” said Nanako.

 

Other Nanako didn’t say anything.

 

“Listen,” said Nanako, “I know this is- strange- but. I don’t have a shadow right now, like I physically am not casting one and that _can’t_ be right because that’s not how it works.”

“But- I’m your Shadow, but me being out here shouldn’t do- that. I. I don’t know what could...” said Other Nanako.

“Me either. Which is why I say you can’t be me- because I’m more than just you or me. I’m both of us, together. But- can you go back? Since you came- out, can you go back- in?” said Nanako.

“N-no. Some things are still the way they should be- I know where you are, but- I can’t. I can’t go back. I.” whimpered Other Nanako.

“It’s okay.” said Nanako. Nanako hugged Other Nanako tighter and hummed softly. A lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she was scared after a nightmare. Nanako and Other Nanako harmonize sweetly and curl together and Other Nanako is still right there.

“Thank you. ...So I guess what you’re saying is that right now, you’re not really me, and I’m not really you because I’m not quite me and you’re not quite you?” said Other Nanako.

“Yes. I think- I think we’re missing something very important to be… ourselves. So… Until we find it, I think you should call me Nanashiro, and I’ll call you Nanakuro if that’s okay?” said Nanashiro.

“That’s fine, I guess. This place...” said Nanakuro.

“Yes. Something is very wrong. I don’t think it should be- like this.” said Nanashiro.

 

Nanashiro and Nanakuro hold each other close and sit quietly. Nanakuro speaks again.

 

“Before I found you, I saw a bunch of other knife spiders- there were dead ones too, and the live ones avoided them. I think we should rest here for a while before we go anywhere else.” said Nanakuro.

“Okay.” said Nanashiro.

 

And they did.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Sasuke’s Bestiary Entry #2]
> 
> "Kutogumo" - The Knife Spider  
> {Justice/Emperor}  
> The patrolling scouts and guards-daughters of the Mother of Spiders in the Grey Webworks. They’re deceptively fast, and use Cut based attacks, Binding webs, and Poison. Weak to Bufu, and Pierce. Bash tends to Topple. The live ones avoid the corpses of their dead sisters. Weak spot on the belly.  
> Preceded by a clinking tapping sound, and the smell of bitterness. Expect them where blood has dried thick and brown-crackled. Favorite tactics are rushing from blind corners and explosive attacks.
> 
> Special Skill: Intimidate - 20% chance of Panic in all combatants.
> 
> [In scratchy lines, a jagged hand crouches- with virgin white palms and glaring eyes over pedipalps painted on and knife-legs smudged and splattered with blood.]


	4. Empress

* * *

“A person’s soul has three parts- reason, spirit, and desire.”

 

Resting in the labyrinth is strange. Nanakuro has medical supplies in her pockets and empty sandwich bags and she put the medical supplies into the bags and the bags into the pack which Nanashiro has gotten used to carrying now. Nanashiro pulls the soft underwebbing off the dead spider and uses it to pad two sets of shin guards because fair is fair and  _ fair is fair _ and both of them will need to protect themselves with armor before long and Nanakuro found her a catcher’s chest thing that hangs on her like a tunic and a bunch of sweaters and cardigans torn in pieces and held together with tape and safety pins. Nanashiro wears layers of shredding cotton-blends and ugly clashing colors of wool heavy soft and dampening for every sound and hit. Nanashiro tapes both sets of shingaurds onto Nanakuro because fair is fair and  _ fair is fair _ and it’s only fair that Nanakuro get the light armor because she needs to move  _ fast. _ It’s also why Nanakuro gets the one helmet they find.

Nanakuro takes her pipe and the lead and both girls movesneak through the grey webworked labyrinth. The smell of sweat and dead leaves. Fireworks and the taste of salt and copper. More armor. Heavy work gloves and duct tape bracing Nanashiro’s wrists. A breastplate from a super sentai costume for Nanakuro.

 

A city made of broken places and forgotten things of things thrown out the smell of vomit and cat pee. The grimy sweat of mist in summer on dust faint sticking steam on the asphalt and the steady crunch of broken glass and ice in teeth and grey pebbles and everything faintly sticks and gleams and crackles.

 

The spiders are surrounding the two of them almost without their noticing.

 

As Nanashiro uses her shield to pulp the oily black carapace of another kind of spider- spindly, sticky, jelly-like and crackling- she muses on Nanakuro’s skill with a blade. Nanakuro is a silvery arc of death, slashing spiders into sprays of oil and broken viscera, tossing gore-spattered hulk-shells aside with whistling ring of her sword-pipe. It’s very beautiful. Nanashiro wonders if it would hurt to have it happen to her. Nanashiro wonders if Nanakuro likes doing it. Nanashiro wonders if Nanakuro would like doing it to her. There are thoughts that pass through Nanashiro that would never be acknowledged if she were- wholly- and Nanako’s reason only has compassion and fear and curiosity in her heart.

 

* * *

 

Janet isn’t really trying to escape anymore. For a while, she thought she might be able to manage it might be able to do might be able to find a door or climb a wall or fight or be able to do something anything- Janet’s the youngest of- four. Four total and four is a bad number and she’s not strong and smart like Margaret and she’s not cute and sneaky like Elizabeth and she’s not sweet and handy like Theodore and she’s just Janet just Janet just  _ useless useless useless and weak. _

Just Janet who can’t fuse a persona Just Janet who doesn’t drink or make jokes or have friends Just Janet who can’t cast a spell right any time can’t save her life can’t save her only friend  _ failure failure failure worthless weak useless Janet _ who can’t do anything right and is so, so tired of being- and Just Janet’s been running away like always-

_ Oh Janet can’t do anything right Janet’s not as good not as smart not as pretty doesn’t deserve to sign the contract like the rest worthless worthless weak and worthless best if she was just replaced with someone interesting stupid worthless weak Janet- _

She tried to go back but she can’t find the way and she thought that Sasuke-  _ stupid stupid Janet never does anything right the first time how could you how could you how could you do that to him worthless awful terrible why why can’t you do anything right the first time- _

The Kutogumo aren’t strong. They’re fast and sneaky and smart- but not strong. They caught Janet because Janet  _ stupid useless worthless _ still needs to rest and the Kutogumo don’t and Janet  _ isn’t like the others they wouldn’t have been caught they’re stronger and smarter better faster worthless worthless Janet don’t even bother going back- _

Janet isn’t sure how long she’s been wrapped in sticky silk and stuck to a wall. She measures time by her sleep and her wake by the rhythmic ebb and flow of clockwork spiders and the chime of metal on muted stone. Her own self-flagellating thoughts offer no insight to the passage of time- it all sounds the same spinning round and round her head. She sleeps and her dreams are woozy and full of slurring colors and slurring words and slurring thoughts slurring together slurring together slurring together and spinning spinning around and around and around. Janet doesn’t remember her sibling’s voices or their faces or other tiny details about them that are so so important but she’s forgotten she’s  _ worthless useless can’t do anything right the first time _ she remembers Sasuke and his rage and the sharp sting of claws raking her arms the sharp snap of his fist against her face the sharp howl of his anguish Sasuke’s sharpness and the way he always had a name for things even when he swore names were basically useless and oh how he raged how he raged at her and her  _ incompetence can’t even cast a simple Diorama without screwing it up _ and Janet-

Janet sleeps. She sleeps and hopes for a numbness that never comes as she listens to her heart pump blood round and round her body and she sleeps and she weeps and she waits to die.

 

* * *

 

When Nanakuro and Nanashiro find the exit to the Webworks Labyrinth, they also find Janet. There was a battle neither Nana thought too much of after the fact- a great hulking mass of chattering blades dripping red and fresh the smell of fireworks and oil the clash of metal as Nanakuro strikes true on the great beasts spindly limbs as Nanashiro slams one two three against unbalanced legs and snaps joints with a faint gong against the walls of it’s lair and oily blood spews in a fantastic black arc everywhere and Nanakuro struck sparks off the side of one of the knives and all the websacks started to burn and they were red and grey and blackening in the flames and they squirmed and wriggled and screamed and hissed with steam and cursing and blackened into ashes and still writhing shapes and their mother grew enraged at their dying and Nanakuro slew it- no, the battle wasn’t all that interesting. Nanakuro is the one who gets Janet down from the wall.

Hers is the only websack that didn’t burn.

The corpses of the knife spiders yielded better weapons for Nana-Nana- uniform lengths of bloodstained bamboo bound together with wire, a pair of push daggers that Nanashiro ends up carrying because Nanakuro uses the sharp ended knifebone of the Red Queen as a longsword- a tachi- and leaves the pipe behind. It’s too big for her but so was the pipe.

Nanashiro wears a yoroi- layers of cloth and paper and bamboo stained red but blood dries brown so it isn’t blood it’s- paint- and she is red, red in those clothes and stronger. Nana-Nana have gotten strong have gotten strong enough to kill the Red Queen of Spiders and rescue Janet.

 

* * *

 

Dojima Nanako is short and brown- brown hair and brown eyes and a brown tan just faded away from the summer. Janet of the Velvet Room is tall like her siblings and fair- white blond hair and golden eyes gleaming in the darkness, a heavy blue denim dress and white stockings with dirt smears and scuffed black Mary Janes. Her hair is a mop of scruffy shaggy shapelessness, and a pair of glasses bottle-bottom thick rest on the bridge of her nose. Nana-Nana bid her rest in the looming shadow of the Red Queen’s corpse, and as Janet took in the form- forms- of her rescuer, only one thought rolled through her head, round and round and round.

‘Where in the hell is her body?’

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * * *
> 
> Sasuke’s Bestiary Entry #1
> 
> Janet of the Velvet Room- Fortune
> 
> “When we die, we come back different. Like, with greener eyes. Or as some far off star. You’ll be someone you wouldn’t understand.”
> 
> A mage with terrible luck and the ability to mess up even the simplest of spells.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Sasuke’s Bestiary Entry #3
> 
> Kandigumo - The Jelly Spider
> 
> The swarming army of the Red Queen. They’re slow but soak damage, and use swarming tactics to great effect. Use Agi to thin the herd, and Bash attacks to keep your elbow room. Weak to Hama, Mudo, and Agi.
> 
> [A splatter of black and glistening legs. Something comes.]
> 
> * * *
> 
> Sasuke’s Bestiary Entry # 7
> 
> Nana-Nana without Desire - Justice
> 
> “Everyone should have a contingency plan for when the dead rise. Mine is to see my mother again. I will try not to hug her too hard.”
> 
> A young heroine with two bodies, two minds, and two choices- Justice being the choice of Truth or Mercy, and Nana-Nana not having a body, those choices get weighed a lot more than they probably should be.
> 
> * * *


End file.
